Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Weekend Trek

Thrusday evening:
tring tring(shashi calling): Lo.. eno madta idya?
me: enilla maga, helu...
(shashi): weekend trek bartya? tadiyendmol?
me: oh sure maga.. yaar yaaru?
(shashi): all are my colleagues, ninge yaaru gotilla...
me: ok maga.. barthini... anandu bartana kelthini...
(shashi): ok, amele phone madi details helthini.. bye
me: bye

Friday night, 10 pm: anand and me waiting for swaraj mazda, it came on time (IST).. around 10:45 or so... then picked up a few more guys at rajarajeshwarinagar arch and started off... some 2/3 sub-groups in the van, kannada speaking, hindi speaking and english etc.. and 2/3 guys here and there settled down zzzzzing... If there is another word for travelling on dakota swaraj mazda on the back seat on mysore road it would be hell .. Reached tadiyendmol via srirangapatna->virajpet->hunsur at around 6:30..

Saturday morning 6:30 am: We were right inside the forest, a great feeling to hear a water stream, birds chirping and early morning mist... splashed the cold fresh water on face to wake us up completely and started the trek... anand and me were left behind as we started clicking watever we saw on the way and the gang went way ahead in 2 groups... Our mission was Tadiyendmol, 7742 ft, the tallest peak in Kodagu district. Kodagu was originally called as Kodaimalenadu, meaning 'dense forest on steep hill'. From the peak of Tadiyendamol, if the clouds are cleared and lucky enough, you could see the Arabian see. The best time to trek is between Dec-March. We walked and walked.. I took so many breaks (photo tegyo nepadalli ;)) Infact I realised that my stamina has gone down so much.. I should start doing yoga regularly anta ankonde.... then at mid-way we had a breakfast break, we had packed Jolad rotti, shenga chutney, uppinkai etc.. ate everything so that there is less weight to carry ;) and then started off.. the second half is the steepest we had to climb 3 steep ones to reach the peak... The last but one was simply superb.. you can see the clouds below you... We reached the top after around 2 hours of trek, the feeling of standing on top is so good.. also, there was a small valley kind on one of the side, where one can see the clouds getting sucked into the valley, the view is fantastic... there are some snaps of that in the link below, check it out... Now comes the easy part, getting down, rather we thought it would be easy.. but since it was steep, we had to be very careful and some of us slipped once or twice, but none were injured... we took a short break at mid-way again then went on.. finally reached base camp around 11:30 or so.. we were happy that we finished the trek, but grrr to sit inside that dakota swaraj mazda again for next 8 hours! we had a small discussion if we should go to tibetian camp at kushalnagar, but most of us had seen it and more-over were eager to get back home and crash.. so we just pushed off.. stopped at cofe day on the way back, had refreshing coffee and maddur vada and finally reached home at 10 pm night....

Check out some more snaps at: http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=473141134568675496/
l=71016460/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

3 comments:

Tyler Durden said...

jarunk freaks out with his camera, yet again :-). nothing to beat (y)our sunrise picture though ;-).

btw, from a previous post:
QUOTE
arguing on who should: clean the dirty vessels, get the groceries etc..
UNQUOTE
hehehe, when did [i] that [/i] happen ??

Arun said...

hey junk, thanks man... yep... our sunrise is the best snap so far in this cam :)

-quote
hehehe, when did [i] that [/i] happen ??
-unquote

he he.. when you were not around ;)

Arun said...

Thanks Sandhya..